Mysterious Fates One Shots (1st Place in the FT Wattys 2015 for Best One Shot!)

The Cherry Blossom Tree (Harry Potter)

A/N: *sighs* Writing Luna was a little harder than I thought it would be. Oh well, hopefully I pulled it off well.

Also, the music is from Kung fu Panda (1st movie). Its called "Oogway Ascends" by Hans Zimmer and John Powell.

Enjoy!

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The Cherry Blossom Tree

5th year at Hogwarts

Subha Patel had reached her breaking point. She often though that meeting Ginny and Sakura, finding Harry as her brother, Ron acting like a knucklehead as usual and she and Hermione bonding over their friends' antics was something that she had gotten used to by now. However.....she didn't expect to be stuck in detention with Luna Lovegood for a prank that Draco Malfoy attempted to pull on her. She would definitely kill Draco if she ever got the chance. And pulling Luna into her personal grudge against Draco had been the last straw. When Luna passed by with Lavender and tried to defend her, he basically called her a blood traitor and "Loony Lovegood" and Subha's blood had boiled hotter than ever as she punched Draco in the face.

Twice.

Unfortunately, by the time she took out her wand, Snape had passed by and gave her detention for the evening, unfairly dragging along Luna in the process. But Luna, even though they didn't know each other thoroughly, was quite a delight to be around with, even if she was a bit of an odd ball. Then again, so was she.....sort of. Ginny had some interesting stories about her since Luna was in the same year as her but Subha still didn't know what to make of her.

They were sorting out the ingredients in the classroom that evening when Luna suddenly said, "I wonder if the Nargles are rearranging all of the ingredients. It would explain why all of them are disorganized."

Subha arched her eyebrows in amusement. "Oh really?"

"Oh yes. Didn't Harry tell you?"

"Um...er....." Subha was rendered speechless at her sudden theory.

"It's alright if you don't remember immediately. They often mess with your minds a bit."

Subha remembered Harry telling her about meeting Luna during the carriage ride. She later remembered him and Ginny telling her about how she usually went on about Nargles. Subha, having no idea what Luna said half the time, usually smiled and nodded while trying to figure out why Snape had only given her a one day detention when any normal Gryffindor would have gotten a month and five-ten points taken away. In addition to Toadface Umbridge being a hawk around the school for any "misconduct" and the news of Subha being Harry's sister traveling faster than what happened at the World Cup last year, this was even more suspicious. Hell, she's been trying to figure out why he's been lenient towards her since her first day in Potions. It's been making her mind hurt by thinking about the subject. It was complicated enough as is.

An hour later, Subha glanced in Luna's direction. She felt responsible for the fact that she dragged Luna into all of her drama. But what can she do to make up for it? She didn't know her very well, so getting her something that she would like was out of the question. But maybe she can. She just needed to get to know her better.

Before she could start a conversation with her, Luna suddenly spoke up.

"You know, now that I think about it," said Luna serenely, "you being related to Harry makes a whole lot of sense, and yet at the same time, it doesn't."

Subha gave Luna a quizzical look. "Whatever do you mean by that?"

"Well, you seem to absolutely hate to be in the spotlight. And.....you seem to jump right whenever you see someone in trouble....like you did when Malfoy called me Loony Lovegood. You didn't have to do that though."